Disabled People Should Band Together To Bring Living Costs Down, Finds Extra Costs Commission

Disabled consumers should be “bold and loud” about their spending power, says disability costs commission.

A year-long enquiry into the expensive lives that disabled people have has concluded that working together as a collective consumer force is necessary to bring down the cost of living.

Despite the sizeable £212bn spending power that disabled people and their families have, dubbed the Purple Pound, businesses are still not wooing this group and disabled people need to recognise their collective power to get better deals from businesses

The recommendations come from the independent Extra Costs Commission which was set up by the charity Scope to collect evidence and find ways in which disabled people could use their financial clout to their advantage. It is chaired by investment manager Robin Hindle Fisher.

In a 2014 report called Priced Out, Scope found that disabled people spend on average an extra £550 per month. Although benefits…